Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is one of the most frequently performed ballets at the Prague National Theatre. The first one premiered on the 30th December 1938, yet this new staging, which is already the sixth, will be very different compared to previous productions. Petr Zuska, artistic director of the Czech National Ballet unlike in the original Shakespearean tragedy does not focus on the story of lovers but on the reason for resentment and blood feud between the Montagues and Capulets: The eternal conflict of the male and female principle. This rendering leaves more room for other, all too often negelcted characters, such as Friar Laurence. In this piece his role is highlighted as renaissance man representing human faith in God. His nemesis is Queen Mab, a mythical ruler of shadows, the “midwife of dreams and phantoms”.